CHAPTER X 



THE MILITARY FUNCTIONS OF PRIESTS. 



628. AMONG the many errors which result from carrying 

 back advanced ideas and sentiments to tho interpretation 

 of primitive institutions, few are greater than that of asso^ 

 ciating priestly functions with actions classed as high in kind, 

 and dissociating them from brutal and savage actions. Did 

 not men s prepossessions render them impervious to 

 evidence, even their Bible readings might raise doubts ; and 

 wider readings would prove that among mankind at large, 

 priests have displayed and cultivated not the higher but 

 rather the lower passions of humanity. 



&quot;We at once see that this must be so, when we remember 

 that instead of deities conceived as possessing all perfections, 

 moral and intellectual, most peoples have had deities con 

 ceived as possessing ferocious natures, often in no way 

 distinguished from the diabolical. Of the ancient Mexicans 

 we read that their &quot; Princes sent to one another to prepare 

 for War, because their Gods demanded something to eat ; &quot; 

 and that their armies &quot;fought, only endeavouring to take 

 Prisoners, that they might have Men to feed those Gods.&quot; 

 According to Jackson, the Fijian priests told those around 

 &quot;that bloodshed and war, and everything connected with 

 them, were acceptable to their gods.&quot; Though Pindar 

 repudiates the ascription of cannibalism to the Greek gods, 

 yet the narrative of Pausanias shows that even in his day, 



